Running and life in First Trimester: the things no-one told me…

If I was to sum up the first three months of being pregnant this is probably it.

Magical pregnancy? The best time of any female’s life? Well. Hmm. For me… big nope.

I always thought that “when I’m pregnant” life will be pretty much the same as it was before except my belly will grow a bit and then a lot. And to be honest, this is pretty much the impression I got from majority of my friends. Sounds a bit naive? But I honestly thought it couldn’t be “that bad”. Of course I heard about something called morning sickness and that you are a bit more tired than usual when pregnant BUT I couldn’t imagined what it actually meant.

Hence I really thought that life will be pretty much the same and I will continue living and running as usual. Right after I found out that a baby is “on its way” I cancelled the Two Oceans Ultra Marathon but I still thought that I’ll be able to run half marathons (it’s only 21k, right) just much slower. Oh, how wrong was I…

The funny thing is that now, when I actually am pregnant and struggling with all sorts of different things (from fungus on my feet to fungus on my face – I had no idea humans could even have this), friends tell me: oh yeah, when I was pregnant I had this too. Why have I not heard about these things before?

Would it change my mind about being pregnant? No but it would probably make me “less stressed/ annoyed” when all of these quirky niggles appear…

I’m not the type of a person who goes and reads everything about everything when they are faced with new circumstances… I kinda deal with things as they come and hope that my body and life in general will stop me if I’m doing something wrong.

Hence you won’t be surprised to learn that I didn’t read anything about running and sports in pregnancy and what one should and shouldn’t do.

I found out that I’m pregnant when I went for a run and I REALLY couldn’t run (you can read more about this HERE). I guess this should have been the first sign of what was about to come…

When I went to my doctor for a first pregnancy check up one of the first things he told me was: “I guess this is the end of your marathon running. Haha.”

My Facebook, Instagram, Twitter is filled with loads of female runners who kept running throughout their pregnancies. And it looks so easy! The reality is, at least for me, that running is bloody hard right now. Not only that I keep piling weight on and my boobs are getting enormous and they hurt but, mainly, I can’t breathe.

Right now when I go for a run, I look like a round red faced ball which is breathing and uffing and puffing like some wounded animal. But it still feels great and gets the endorphins flowing and I am convinced that if I am happy and my body is flooded with the happiness hormone then the baby must be flooded with it too. Which is part of why I keep on running, except the fact that it makes me feel at least a bit normal in these “dodgy times” :)

I honestly believe that the body IS SMART and it tells you what you can and cannot do. You just need to pay attention and listen. So I run super sloooow with pauses to catch my breath (and to take photos, of course) plus I don’t take my Garmin with me on all the runs so I’m not tempted to run faster or feel sorry for myself for being so slow.

What really took me by surprise during these first three months?

I feel fat, ugly, un-sexy and really weird. Do you know the PMS feeling? This is pretty much how I’m feeling ever since I found out I’m pregnant.

Just how much my boobs and nipples hurt. Drying with a towel after a shower has become a heroine task.

How much the boobs grow! I had big boobs before I got pregnant, I’m now scared I’m going to outgrow the sizes they produce bras in.

That morning sickness is pretty much all day sickness – I don’t even remember how many times I had to pull over and throw up when I was driving. Lush.

Hunger! I am so hungry! All the bloody times. And it even wakes me up at night.

Running is hard! I mean HARD! It really takes me an effort to go for a run.

If only running was hard, then it would be great but everything makes me sooo tired these days.

I am lazy! I guess probably because I’m sooo bloody tired all the time. I even managed to fall asleep at work once. Luckily no-one noticed. OMG.

But the funniest thing is that it doesn’t matter how shitty this pregnancy makes me feel and how many times I throw up… I’m still sooo excited to watch the belly grow, can’t wait for the next baby scan to see the little human growing and can’t wait for July!

If you were pregnant: how was your first trimester?

And what do you think about running in pregnancy? Did you? Would you?

P.S. When I was in week 8 (second month of pregnancy) we were in a car accident. We were letting people cross the street and a car behind us “didn’t see us” and crashed into us driving 70 km/hour. I was super scared that we lost the baby hence we went straight into the emergency room, wearing all lycra as we were driving to meet other runners. The gynecologist asked me if I run and when I said yes, then he told me that my baby is used to being shaken about and no car accident can disturb him/ her. So, there you go, it is medically proven, that running in pregnancy can be beneficial. Ha!

P.P.S. Everybody told me that the second trimester will be better than the first trimester. Well, I don’t throw up anymore BUT I have all sorts of other lovely health related issues happening to me… but more about it next time… bet you can’t wait already :)

P.P.P.S. Not all pregnancies are like mine. In fact, just now I learned that one of my friends didn’t know she was pregnant till the 5th month… lucky lucky her!